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REPORT AND RESOLUTIONS 



ADOPTED BY THE 



Department Encampment of Wisconsin, 

O. A. R. 

At its Twenty-Second Annual Meeting in Milwaukee, 
February 15TH and i6th, 18S8. 



Ordered Sent to the Departments of the G. A. R. 
and Teachers' Associations Throughout the United States. 



Milwaukee: 
Swain & Tate, Printers, 387 Broadway, 

1S88. 



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Headquarters Department oe Wisconsin, G. A. R. 

Milwaukee, Wis., May i, 1888. 

In conformity with the instructions of the Twenty-second Encampment, 
Department of Wisconsin, Grand Army of the Republic, held February 15 
and 16, 1888, we respectfully call your attention to the following report of a 
Committee on School Histories, and the resolutions accompanying it. 

On this important question we, in behalf of the Department of Wiscon- 
sin, respectfully ask the co-operation of the patriotic citizens of all sections 

of our common country. 

Lucius Fairchild, 
E. B. Gray, 
Phil. Cheek, Jr., 
E. L. Shores, 
John Meehan, 

Co»i»!///ee. 



REPORT. 



School Histories. 

Comrade John Hancock, of Madison, from the Committee on School 
Histories, appointed at the last Encampment, presented the following 
report : 
To the Department of Wisconsin, Grand Army of the Republic: 

Your committee have had vmder advisement the matter of School His- 
tories, submitted to them at the last Encampment, and beg to report that 
they have given the subject all the consideration they could consistently 
with their daily duties. 

They have examined a number of School Histories now in use in the 
North, and find that they all alike signally fail to comprehend the causes 
that resulted in the war of the rebellion ; they conclude that the Histories 
at the present time used in our common schools were compiled for the 
purpose of a national system of education. South as well as North, and in 
doing this the efforts to be impartial and non-sectional have in many 
instances gone beyond the bounds of reason ; but that possibly might be 
overlooked if the Southern section of our country would accept them, or 
embody their substance in the Histories compiled, published and used 
there ; when in our Histories every latitude is given to the South, even to 
the extent that a student after finishing the study is unable to comprehend 
the differences between the two sections that resulted in the war, and 
is left unable to comprehend which was right and which wrong ; indeed to 
discover that even there was a right or wrong side to that, struggle for the 
preservation of the Union ; after going to that extreme, evidently to secure 
their adoption and use in the South, and avoid the charge of being parti- 
san or sectional, still these Histories are spurned and refused a recognition 
there except to a limited extent. 

Your committee procured several different Histories now used in the 
common schools of the South, and after their perusal they were no longer 



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in doubt as to the reasons for this refusal. It was found what was suspected 
to be true that the Southern Histories all equally agree upon one point — 
that is, in teaching a thoroughly studied, rank, partisan system of sectional- 
education. 

The criticisms our own Histories have undergone .are based upon 
good and sufficient ground and are worthy of notice : yet in the mind of 
your committee they sink into insignificance compared to what is deemed 
of so much more importance, and to which your attention is now most 
respectfully called, and we ask that the matter be recognized and given 
that consideration which the importance and magnitude of the subject 
demands. 

While it is impossible in the space allowed a report of this nature, to 
make extended quotations, sufficient will be given at least to draw your 
attention to the subject and lay the foundation for a more extended 
research. 

Samples From Southern Histories. 

The first of these Southern Histories that we shall notice is a South 
Carolina History, entitled " Davidson's School History of South CaroHna," 
published at Columbia, S. C, by one W. J. Duffie, copyrighted in 1869 : 

Chapter 195: "The cause of secession, which was the cause of the war, ■ 
was very much the same thing that caused nullification in 1832. Congress 
kept passing laws which it had no right to pass according to the constitution." 

Chapter 196: " Whatever may have been the cause that brought the state 
to that decision. South Carolina did decide to withdraw from the Union of 
the States. She had a right to do this; that is, if the States Rights party of 
the South was correct in its doctrine." 

Chapter 197: * * * "On the 20th of December, 1860, the ordinance of 
secession was passed. By this act South Carolina ceased to be a state in the 
Union, and became again a separate and sovereign state, as she was before 
the ratifying of the constitution, seventy-two years previous." 

Chapter 201: " From this time— the fall of FortSumpter — South Carolina 
went vigorous!}' to work to raise troops to defend the new government formed 
in the South known as the Confederate States of America against the threat- 
ened invasion of the United States." 

The next Southern History bears on its title page, " By J. S. Blackburn, 
Principal of Potomac Academy, Alexandria, Va., and W. N. McDonald, 
A. M., Principal of Male High School, Louisville, Kentucky, Twelfth 
Edition, Revised " : 

"The Secession of South Carolina." 

Page 394-5: "South Carolina was the first to act. On the 20th of Decem- 
ber, 1860, a convention assembled in Charleston declared that ' the Union 
before existing between South Carolina and other states, under the iiame of 



the United States of America, was dissolved.' In justification of this measure 
it was alleged that the property, lives and liUertj' of the citizens were threat- 
ened by the aggressive aspect of the incoming administration. 

" In'l 832 this party was divided, some believing that a state had a right 
while in the Union to nullify an act o'f congress, whereas others held that no 
state had that right, but that any state had a right to withdraw from the Union 
as from a compact. In 1860 there was no such division because the question 
was not about nullifying, but about secession; and all held that any state had 
the right to secede. 

" It was further asserted that the right of secession was a necessary part of 
that sovereignty * * * which had never been for a moment surrendered 
to the federal government." Again: ''To Washington, agents were sent, 
formallj^ announcing the action of the sovereign states and asking for a peace- 
ful settlement of difficulties." 

"Action of Virginia." 

Page 399: " Several of the border states, which, till then had remained 
inactive, watching the course of events, were by tlie proclamation of Mr. 
Lincoln forced to act." * * * "Virginia, it was urged, had done enough 
for peace. Her efforts thus far had only excited the reproaches of her friends 
and the contempt of her enemies. The president had forced a sword into 
her hands, and it was her duty to draw it in defence of states rights." 

Page 404: Col. Ellsworth is styled a "famous rough "and circus rider of 
Chicago, while for Jackson, his slayer, " at the South tears were shed for him, 
and he was ranked among the patriotic mart}^rs of history." 

Page 427: " The second year of the war now commenced; it found each 
section preparing with terrible earnestness for the conflict. The South was 
straining every nerve to resist the Northern multitudes; her congress passed 
a law conscribing all men under thirty-five years of age. To fill her armies 
the North had a better and more successful mode, she offered immense boun- 
ties and high pay. Induced by these, thousands of European mercenaries 
enlisted. The South had nothing but her gallant children to put in the field 
and thus she was condemned to stake her most precious jewels against the 
trash of Europe." 

Rebel Teachings. 

The next Southern History that comes to our notice is one written by 
Hon. Alexander H. Stephens. His prominence in our national councils, 
his desertion and abandonment of the national government for the vice- 
presidency of the Confederate States is well known to you all ; he belonged 
to the same school of politicians as Jefl"erson, Hayne and Calhoun. From 
his better knowledge of this Southern States Rights heresy, he developes it 
more fully in his School History perhaps than the other Histories we have 
referred to. 

After the close of the war he very industriously bent his best energies to 
warping history in support of this States Rights heresy, and in 1867 he pub- 
lishes his views in an elaborate work of two volumes of 800 pages each, 
entitled "War Between the States," wherein he advocates States Sovereignty 
and vindicates secession. In that work, Vol. II, pages 651-2, he says: 



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" The cause which was lost at Appomattox Court House * * * was only 
the maintainance of this principle by arms — it was not the principle itself that 
they abandoned. They only abandoned their attempt to maintain it by 
phj'sical force." 

Again, page 667 : 

" The Confederates so far from being branded with the epithet of * rebels ' 
and 'traitors' will be honored as self-sacrificing patriots, and their heroes 
and martyrs in history will take places by the side of Washington, Hampden 
and Sydney." 

That publication was emphatically the great work of his life, but not 
content to rest his fame on this high-sounding panegyric to treason — a 
work only for matured minds — he leaves another legacy, and that a Com- 
mon School History to the children of the South, that it may become a 
part of their school system, and insists upon their contuiuing to indoctrin- 
ate their youth with this monstrous heresy. 

Page 429 of his School History, Mr. Stephens says : 

" They held that under the constitution of 1787 * * * the sovereignty 
of the several states was still reserved by the parties respectively, and that 
with it the right of eminent domain was retained by each within its limits. 
That the federal authorities had no rightful military jurisdiction over the soil 
upon which Fort Sumpter was erected except by the consent of the state of 
South Carolina * * * and when South Carolina had re-assumed her sov- 
ereign jurisdiction over her entire territory, the possession of this fort * * 
* justly belonged to her; that they had the right legally and morally to 
claim and take possession of it, and that any attempt by force to resist the 
exercise of this right by any other power was an act of war. * * * Mr. 
Lincoln's call for troops, therefore, was met by the government at Montgom- 
ery by a similar call for volunteers to repel aggressions." 

These limited quotations but faintly reflect the volumes ; it is impossible 
to give you anything like a fair idea of the latitude taken in these South- 
ern School Histories ; that can be realized only by giving each volume an 
attentive reading. 

State Rights. 

This term " state rights " that bears so conspicuous a place in these 
Southern Histories means simply state sovereignty, i. e., placing the sover- 
eignty of the state above the Union — the right of any one state to nullify 
an act of congress or at its will peaceably to secede from ^ the Union; an 
interpretation put upon the constitution by Thomas Jefferson while vice- 
president of the United States under the elder Adams and the leader of 
the opposition to the then administration, and further, an avowed candidate 
for the presidency ; this interpretation was first by him embodied in the 
Kentucky Resolutions of 1 798-9 ; he wrote the resolutions with the distinct 



understanding that their authorship should be and remain a profound 
secret; which secrecy was faithfully maintained for upwards of twenty 
years, until he acknowledged their authorship in a letter to J. Cabel Breck- 
enridge, December ii, 1821. 

The legislature of Virginia had the same year passed a series of resolu- 
tions similar to those of Kentucky, but not so radical, drawn by Mr. 
Madison, but inspired by Mr. Jefferson. 

These resolutions were sent by the legislatures of Kentucky and Virginia 
to the different states for their consideration. Ten of the states con- 
demned the heresy in pronounced language. One state was reported at 
the time to have " kicked them under the table." The balance of the 
states did not deign to even notice them. That was this heresy's first 
reception — a stinging rebuke that should have been sufficient to cause it 
forever to hide its hydra head. Notwithstanding it was persisted in and 
made a part of the educational system of the South. From it Hayne and 
Calhoun drew their inspiration during the nullification period of 1830-2, 
and from that time it was " systematically and pertinaciously " pursued 
until it culminated in 1860-1 in the war of the rebeUion. 

Washington's Alarm and Foresight. 

At the time of the passage of these resolutions, 1798, Washingon was in 
retirement ; but ever watchful of the interests of the people, he viewed this 
doctrine with great apprehension and alarm, and with prophetic vision he 
forecast the consequences of this doctrine when, in a letter to Patrick 
Henry, remarkable in its lone, he pleadingly urged him to announce him- 
self a candidate for the House of Delegates in his own state and there stand 
as a bulwark against this heresy. He said : " If this doctrine was sys- 
tematically and pertinaciously pursued it must eventually dissolve the 
Union or produce coercion." 

Mr. Henry had been an invalid for two years, but he responded to 
Washington's appeal by leaving his sick bed, announced himself a candi- 
date and at the polls he addressed the people as follows : 

"The state had quitted the sphere in which she had been placed by the 
constitution and, in daring to pronounce upon the validity of federal laws, 
had gone out of her jurisdiction in a manner not warranted by any authority, 
and in the highest degree alarming to every considerate man; that such 
opposition on the part of the state to the acts of the general government 
must beget their enforcement by military power." 



Thus those two great and good men predicted in relation to this abom- 
inable doctrine. How truly the clash of arms on Virginia's soil in 1861 
verified these predictions ! 

Your committee can go no farther in this direction, but repeat that 
these Southern School Histories to which we have referred teach the same 
identical doctrine, more radical and partisan than before the war ; as they 
now proclaim the righteousness of their cause, vindicate state sovereignty 
and secession, and any School History that teaches anything different 
finds but httle encouragement in that section. 

Conclusion, 

These Southern Histories do not fail to make known their side of this 
question. They are full of it. There is no disguise on their part. What 
we deem treason is there made respectable. While our Histories on the 
same subject are comparatively silent, indeed are so lamentably deficient 
upon this question that it were far better to discard all History of our 
country during the epoch of 1860-5 than to admit them to our schools as 
now compiled. 

Time to Call a Halt. 

It is indeed time to cease toying with treason for policy, and to cease 
illustrating rebels as heroes, as is the case in some of our own School His- 
tories. It is not reviving sectional issues or animosities to advocate that 
this matter be dealt with strictly in accordance with the true facts of 
history. 

Our government is not just to its people; we are not just to our sons 
and daughters unless we demand that in our School Histories space suf- 
ficient be given to elucidate this monstrous heresy. 

It is time that a broad, comprehensive, constitutional. Union-loving 
patriotism should be taught in our common schools. We have had one 
epoch of supineness and apathy upon this question, and the result was that 
Wisconsin had to send 80,000 of her best citizens to the field, of whom 
12,000 never returned. 

While it may be useless to criticise this Southern method, as under our 
present lack of a national system of education we have no remedy except 
so far as we can influence public opinion in the South by an expression of 



9 

our sentiment, we should not fail or be deterred from doing our duty. The 
variance of the two systems should be the strongest incentive to educate 
our own children in that sturdy loyalty that places the Union above the 
state, that teaches that sovereignty is in the people, of the United States, 
not in the people of a single state, and that nuUification and secession are 
treason. And we would appeal to the ex-soldiers of the Confederacy, 
whose bravery on many a well-fought field we can amply attest, having 
honestly surrendered as they did, and professing to love the Union as they 
now do, urging that they use their influence against the doctrine of state 
rights, which was the chief cause of our sad fraternal strife, and which, if 
continued to be taught, may again be the cause of another civil war. 

Comrades : You know of it, the badges you wear upon your breasts, 

which entitle you to a seat in this Encampment, evidence that you met 

and throttled this heresy on the battle fields of your country ; and now it 

is in your hands to resolve whether or not you will, so far as your influence 

extends, see to it that your children are supphed with a School History 

from which they can learn the reasons why their fathers went forth to 

battle for the unity of the states, for the constitution and for the supremacy 

of law. 

Jno. Hancock, 
A. O. Wright, 
H. C. Curtis. 

The reading of the report was interrupted by frequent demonstrations 
of approval of the report of the committee, and of disapproval of the 
sentiments embodied in the histories used in the schools of the South. 

On motion of Comrade Watrous, of Milwaukee, amended by Comrade 
John Meehan, of DarHngton, the report was unanimously adopted by a 
rising vote. 

In connection with the report. Comrade Hancock offered the following 
resolutions, which were unanimously adopted : 

Resolved, That the Assistant Adjutant-General of this Department is hereby 
instructed to send a copy of the report of the Committee on School Histories 
to the several Department Headquarters, asking their co-operation. 

Resolved, That a committee be appointed by this Encampment whose duty 
shall be to see to it that the said report is brought properly to the attention 
of the National Encampment at its next session ; and 

Resolved, That a copy of the report be sent also to each of the various 
Teachers' Associations throughout the country, requesting their co-operation; 
and that said committee report their doings to the next Encampment. 



10 



The following committee was appointed, pursuant to such resolutions : 
Lucius Fairchild, Madison; E. B. Gray, Milwaukee; Philip Cheek, 
Jr., Baraboo; E. L. Shores, Ashland; John Meehan, Darlington. 



Official, from the Records, 




Assistant Adjutant-General, 

Department of Wisconsin. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 700 675 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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